Abstract
AbstractAlthough the linguistic properties of polar questions have been extensively studied, comparatively little is known about how polar questions are processed in real time. In this paper, we report on three eye-tracking experiments on the processing of positive and negative polar questions in English and French. Our results show that in the early stages, participants pay attention to both positive and negative states of affairs for both positive and negative questions. In the late stages, positive and certain negative polar questions were associated with a bias for the positive state, and this bias appears to be pragmatic in nature. We suggest that different biases in mental representations reflect the hearer’s reasoning about the speaker’s purposes of enquiry.
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
General Psychology,Linguistics and Language,Language and Linguistics,Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Cited by
2 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献
1. The Processing of Negation and Polarity: An Overview;Journal of Psycholinguistic Research;2021-11-17
2. Verifying Negative Sentences;Journal of Psycholinguistic Research;2021-08-28